hi baby hello baby

Our darling bacha has learnt to recognize babies.  The only problem is that for her any bacha ranging from a day old to older ones in the range of 12-13 years are all babies. Moment she spots any child(I’ll use this as a generic term to define children’s in the age groups mentioned above) Devaangi starts points towards and calling out to that child as baby.  She continues to call out the child as baby and tries to touch that “BABY” all the while trying to be friendly with that child.
Not only this even when bacha sees her own photo or photo of any other child or sees the child on TV she immediately starts pointing towards that photo while saying baebeee( I have written baby the way it sounds when bacha pronounces baby)
 I have Devaangi’s pics as screensaver on my cell phone and the moment bacha sees my cell phone she starts saying baebeee (even if the screen is off and her pic is not visible).

Mujhe upper jaana hai…. I want to climb high!!!

During the northern grid failure I was sitting out in the stairs along with the bacha when the bacha suddenly got out of my lap and started climbing the stairs. At first I was really apprehensive and tried to stop her from doing so as I was scared that bacha might hurt herself. But bacha was determined that she wanted to climb the stairs. By the way Devaangi appears to be very head strong right from this stage itself. Once she sets her mind on doing a thing she tries her best to do it.  So I soon realized that if bacha has set her mind to climb the stairs she will any ways try to do it so I let her try it out. I was however right behind the bacha to hold her in case she loses her balance. Par bacha being a determined child who does what she wants to do, bacha managed to climb the flight of stairs to reach the 2^nd floor of the building. Imagine a 11  month old bacha climbing one complete floor (mind you DDA stairs are quite high).

Well bacha climbed the stairs again and this time maa made her do so J I know that was naughty of me to do it but nevertheless I tries it out. Other day I took Devaangi out for a stroll in her pram. When we came back I realized that I had forgotten to take my cell phone so I couldn’t call the maid to come down and take the pram upstairs. So I tried to act smart. I folded the pram and lifted it to take it upstairs on my own and put bacha down on the first stair. Guess what bacha climbed the complete flight of stairs to reach the landing area. This is where I left the pram and held bacha in my arms and took her in my arms to cover the  remaining stairs. You might say it was mean of me to do so but I actually wanted bacha to do this as part of her growing up activities!!!

Remote Control mere haath mein hai

Devaangi has realized early the importance of managing stuff using remote control. Jab poora country madam ke remote control pe chal sakta hai to hamara ghar kyon nahi Devaangi ke remote control pe chale?

Since bacha has always seen us using remotes for switching on AC and TV, moment she sees any remote lying idle she quickly grabs it and starts pointing it towards the TV or the AC as to trying to switch it on!! IIn fact just the other day, I switched on the tv and while the set top bo was coming up bacha not only picked up the remote and pointed it towards the tv but was also pressing buttons so as to turn on the tv J

In fact she is so much smitten with gadgets  that moment she realizes that AC has been turned on, she quickly moves towards it to check whether all it’s LEDs are lighted or not. This happens more at her sleeping time when she even leaves her feed on realizing that AC has been turned on and actually crawls towards it to confirm that it has been turned on. Once bacha is satisfied, she comes back to continue with her feed!!!

I have already mentioned about bacha’s fascination for telephone sets in the previous posts. Another thing that excites bacha is the red bulb that has been put outside badi daadi’s bathroom( to indicate whether it is in use or not just like you have red bulbs outside OTs). Moment that red bulb is turned on, bacha forgets about everything else and  starts pointing towards it while making noises. In addition if the red bulb is turned off and you are standing near the switch, bacha actually prompts you to lift her so that she can switch the red bulb on and off (yes she has learnt how to do this).

Same goes out for the doorbell.  One day I was standing outside the door and was knocking at the door as there was a power failure and bacha actually started calling out to me to draw my attention towards the bell as though telling me that I need to ring it in order to have the door opened.

By the way Devaangi does the same with my neighbor’s doorbell as well. In case Kamla aunty’s door is opened and she is standing there talking to us or to bacha, bacha bends forward from our arms and tries to reach aunty’s door bell.

Abhi se yeah haal hai to aage Im sure Davaangi will be ringing aunty’s and our doorbell throughout the day or maybe jab bhi mauka mile !!!!

i looveeeeeeee speaking on phone and otherwise

Bacha now babbles and mumbles a lot… she is all out trying to talk and can say words like mama aayi, dada, papa, baby, bebe, nana,bho bho

She recognizes people and things . moment you say dada she looks around and figures out where is dada. Same is with mama, ppa, badi daadi and didi(her nanny)
She has also calling out to dada, didi, papa and mama.
When bacha is sitting across dadaji on the dining table or if dada closes his room ka door(least bacha throws his medicines down again) she Devaangi prompty starts calling out to dada. Mind you she calls out dada with such authority ki poocho mat and will continue to do so jab tak dada doesn't respond.

Bacha is also able to point to fan. When asked where is fan she starts looking at the fan.

Another thing bacha recognises is the phone. Devaangi puts her palm on her ears when either u say phone aaya or the phone actually rings. Aur kahin galti se she either has your cell or the cordless or even her toy phone, bacha promptly puts that on her ears as well. She wants to talk a lot on phone so does not let u talk on phone and tries to grab it out of ur hands (kya Karen poori maa aur daadi pe gayi hai J ) Kai baar to bache ne redial feature use karke logoko phone bhi kiya hai and we have had people reverting on why we called them but did not speak :-)

Devaangi has also learnt to put the phone of speaker and you should see her reactions when she realizes that phone is on speaker. She promptly drops the phone and tries to go away least kisi ko pata chale ki Devaangi ne phone speaker pe daala hai. thanks to Devaangi now a days kayi baar hamare ghar ka phone is engaged for long.. ma'am receiver on kar deti hain aur kisi ko pata hi nahi chalta hai :-)

 i know this is just the begining aage aage dekho kya hota hai.

Johny Johny yes papa ha ha ha

Since the very beginning we have been singing nursery rhymes to bacha. Few of these are johny johny yes papa, humpty dumpty, twinkle twinkle and so on.

Johny johny  waali rhyme is used a lot while feeding bacha. Moment we would say open your mouth line, bacha would actually open her mouth and like smart people we would use this opportunity to put food in her mouth. Probably bacha over the period has realized what we try to do so she has learnt the last part of the rhyme that is ha ha ha. Haan ji bachaji has started recognizing rhymes. Moment we start singing johny johny and give pause after a line she promptly says ha ha ha!!!

Devaangi's got her ears pierced

Maa and papa got Devaangi's ears pierced on 12th Aug. We had been thinking about it over a long period of time par 12th evening ko we suddenly decided to get it done. Phir kya tha maa and papa packed off to Silofer in GK to have bacha's ears pierced. When i realized that the guy there is going to pierce bacha's ears manually i started getting jitters thinking how painful it will be for bacha to her ears pierced. We actually went in and out of the stop twice before we finally developed a braveheart to have bacha's ears pierced. The first ear(left one) was pierced with papa holding bacha and maa got bacha's second ear pierced.

I don't think that Devaangi was in pain for long. I guess she cried (actually howled is a better word) more because we held her head  firmly so that it stayed steady during the piercing and Devaangi generally also doesn't let anyone hold her head. She started crying moment we tried to hold her in place for the piercing and calmed down soon after.

I guess 5-10 min after the piercing was done., bacha didn't even remember that any such thing was done and was back to normal. In fact for next 2 days she was more chirpy than her usual self. thanks to bacha's Nidhi Mittal aunty for all the inspiration and motivation for having her ears pierced.

Par yeah to fact hai that bacha is looking very cute with her ear studs :-) nazar na lage mere bachu ko!!!!! Checkout her pic above for her earrings!!

My little prankster

Deevangi is becoming more active with each passing day. In fact you now require someone fulltime to be with bacha to ensure she doesn't get harmed by any of her mischiefs.
As bacha was growing up, we got the child safety plugs put in the electric points at home so that bacha doesn't put he fingers in any of those holes.
But bacha being bacha, madam has figured out how to remove those child safety plugs so that she can fiddle with the electric switches!!!! phew!!! bacha is always one step ahead of us in terms of the sharaarats she does.
Another new feather to my bacha's mischievous cap is that she has learnt to climb the head stand of our bed. The head stand must be more than a foot above the bed and bacha has learnt to climb it. It's a fun to see how bacha gets on to the headstand especially if maa is sleeping or lying on the bed. Bacha immediately puts a foot over my face, head , hair( whatever she can put her foot on) and uses it to step onto the head stand. if maa is not there then no worries bacha puts her one leg onto the head stand and lifts herself on it.
Ek baar upar pahuch gayi to phir to saara headstand bache ka playing arena hai :-) in that narrow space, bacha crawls from one end to another back and forth and gives u her  full masti waali smile. She is so happy to be there as though bacha has reached the top of the world.  Phir kya hai jo bache ko milta hai gets thrown down on the bed. The most risky thing here are again the electrical points at either side of the bed and my tv cords coming out from the tv which is placed above the bed. Bacha currently pulls at those cords and i know ki woh door nahi jab bacha will start fiddling with the tv as well.
yahi haal raha to maa will soon become patli just by running around u bacha!!!

I am an year old!!!!

The apple of our eyes, hamare jigar ka tukra, Devaangi turned One on 18th August. For days prior to 18th we were not able to decide what to do for bachu's bday as we did not want to have a big party (Devaangi recently lost her naanu). Finally on 14th we decided that the best way to celebrate bachu's bday was to have Guruji's satsang at home so that along with bacha the whole family receives Guruji's blessings.
We planned for around 70 people and the whole langar was prepared at home by maa and Nidhi massi. This is the first time when we had such a large gathering at home with all preparations done at home itself. Maa and massi prepared chole, matar paneer, dahi vada, sevaiyaan kheer. In addition there were chotte rasgulle, paneer jalebi and offcourse bachu's bday cake.
The whole planning was done in 2 days flat with maa taking off on 17th. Maa decorated the house in color theme of pink and white (in coordination with her little princess's dress). Guruji's aasan was decorated with pink net, flowers and guess what balloons as well :-).
birthday girl indeed looked a little princess in her pink frock ( a gift from naani)and pink head gear(actually a flower studded hairband with pink veil which she would throw moment it was placed on bachu's head)
Bachu's birthday cake was a huge doll cake (again in pink and white) the design of which maa had searched on net and coordinated with slice of itlay for making it. And indeed the guys at slice of Italy did a marvelous job with the cake.
The satsang went on very well thanks to Guruji's blessings with around 40 people present and bacha received blessings of all.
Indeed the best way to celebrate bacha's birthday!!!!
Wishing for many more birthdays for our darling daughter.

Meri pyarri maa

One person who has adjusted the most to maa’s absence for long durations during the day is Devaangi. I salute my bacha for being so understanding and patient despite her innocent age especially when we all feel that such a small child cannot understand anything. I joined back work after Devaangi completed 5 months and from there on bacha has adjusted well to the routine.

bacha has a body clock set to ensure that most of the times she wakes up minutes before either maa’s getting ready or about to leave J and just not lets maa leave J bas phir kya hai bacha is in maa’s lap and moment someone tries to take her she starts crying.. phir dheere dheere daadi or maid  will take bacha and move with her into another room so that maa can leave for work.. trust me it is hard to leave bacha like this and leave!!! Par moment maa is out of house bacha bhool jaata hai ki aisa kuch hua J and doesn’t miss maa(at least shows that she doesn’t miss me)

bache ne kitna miss kiya yeah pata chalta hai by the time day is over. During the day bacha is mostly in the drawing room, that is where her play area has been set. Jaise hi evening hoti hai and bell rings, bacha starts looking towards the door as though expecting maa to enter.

When I come back and bacha sets her eyes on me, she forgets everything and every other person around. U must see the sheer joy and pleasure on bacha ’s face. She simply jumps with pleasure and excitement and it becomes difficult for me to even visit the loo or keep my bags down and have a glass of water. Lemme just try to do any of these without taking bacha in my arms and bacha starts howling  ki maa mujhe chod ke andar kaise chale gayi J

The way bacha clings to me at the end of the day makes each one of us at home realize how much she has missed me during the day

For past few months bacha has developed a special way of showing her affection. It all started with bacha clinging around my neck and sucking my cheeks. Slowly to the category of cheeks my neck and shoulder to got added. In fact kuch seconds baad mera haal yeah hota hai that my face and neck are all wet  and dripping with bacha ka saliva!!! Infact aisa lagta hai that a puppy has licked my face J I know it is a funny comparison but what I want to reflect here is the amount of affection showered by bacha. And gradually as bacha’s teeth started appearing, to the suck, bites too have been added with bites restricted to my shoulder in case I m talking to others and not to bacha(while she is in my lap) . At other times she tries to draw my attention towards her by either creating sounds while looking at me or she starts patting me chest just below my neck. Bus is samay Devaangi ki taraf dekho to u should see the mischievious smile on her face.

That's why I say that her Alka Mathur aunty is so correct when she says ki Devaangi ki face se sharaarat tapakti hai.... She is so naughty that you cna have her still for even a minute.

One thing that both me and paa enjoying doing with bacha is to make her sit on our shoulders. When I make bacha sit on my shoulders, she bends her face down, looks into my eyes, smiles to show her happiness and befor one realizes tries to suck and lick my cheek and takes my nose in her mouth all while bending down!!!

Aur aajkal ka trend to kuch aur hi hai... mera bandar oops i mean meri bandariya, clings to me just like a bandar ka bacha clings to it's mom. She holds on to my dress at the neck and yells when someone tries to take her from my arms. bilkul chipak hi jaati hai aur chodne kaa naam hi nahi leti hai... when anyone tries to take bacha from my arms, she pulls at my dress with such a tight grip and pressure that at times i feel ki yeah dress to phat gayi and i'll need to get a new one  ;-) papa r u listening??? maa is ready for shopping!!!!

Kitchen mein main khichi chali aayi

Bacha has really been enjoying crawling around the house. Devaangi started crawling about a month back and she hasn’t stopped ever since. Bacha crawling. Looks like a rabbit is hopping around with her bum raised and swinging sideways while hopping around. Aur ab to yeah aalam hai ki u just need to blink your eyes and bacha has crawled and gone away. Bacha has got some of her favorite places in the house where she loves to crawl and reach. The first one being the kitchen. All u need to do is to put bacha on the floor in the drawing or the dining room and instantaneously she rushes to the kitchen whether or not maa is in the kitchen or not.  Actually the attention drawer for bacha is the basket kept in the kitchen that is used to keeping onions and potatoes. God knows what draws bacha to kitchen. She really loves to reach out to onions and eat them.. yes bacha eats onions!!!! And that’s just the entrance to the kitchen J Moment she gets inside the kitchen, bacha immediately goes for the kitchen cabinets which she tries to open(poor child kyonki maa ne to cabinets tightly shut kar diye hain so that bacha cannot open them). The next target for bacha are the plastic containers placed in the trolley. She crawls up to the trolley and sitting comfortably on the floor, bacha gently pulls each container out of the trolley and throws it on the floor. Try calling bacha at this time and most of the time you can be sure that she will not listen to you (afterall ma’am is too engrossed in such an important task J). And times bacha turns back in response to you calling her, she looks at you with such a naughty smile on her face that your heart melts instantaneously and you do not have a heart to say anything to bacha.

By the way I forgot to mention that bacha has already started showing a keen interest in cooking!!! Ji haa you have got me right… I m talking about cooking… yes ji this is called starting early.. try taking bacha in the kitchen when there are things cooking on the gas. Bacha becomes so maha excited on seeing the pots and pans on the gas burner that she starts pointing  towards them while making exciting noises. Aisa lagta hai that bacha just wants to jump in the middle of all cooking action and take charge.

Well there are other things as well in the kitchen that excite bacha. One of them is the mixer. You just have to turn the mixer on and god knows what happens to her- bacha becomes over excited, rolls her mouth, points her fingers to the mixer, takes out ooo ooo ooo noise and starts jumping in the arms of the person holding her. Same thing happens when the water level indicator starts beeping to indicate that water tanks are full. I guess it is the sound produced by these 2 appliances that excites bacha… par job hi reason hai bacha really enjoys these sounds n her excitement is what matters the most J

Catching up on past 2 months

Today i m writing at a gap of almost one month. a lot has happened in past one month. Devaangi lost her dearest nanu on 3rd july. Devaangi has been virtually on her own for the whole month of june and half a month of july. When i say on her own i mean her mom ie i was either away at hospital or with rituals of nanu that needed to be taken care of. Hats off to the most understanding bacha that we have- our Devaangi who has adjusted to the changes in life better than any of us and yes Devaangi during this period  has grown a lot in this time. 

First experience with antibiotics
During this period Devaangi suffered her first stomach infection. thanks to maa. I had stomach infection which got passed on to the bacha. For the first time, bacha was put on antibiotics. Initially i tried to give her homeopathy. I was giving bacha nux vomica 200, 3 drops thrice a day along with BC 25. However these did not help. Eventually  i showed Devaangi to an allopath and he prescribed antibiotics. My poor bachu had to have antibiotics for full 5 days along with maa (yes I too took 3 days course of norflox tz twice). Finally bacha was relieved of her stomach infections. Thanks to the antibiotics her appetite dipped badly which took more than a week to come back to normal.

My Shaitan bacha
Devaangi has become a true shaitan. She is so bubbly and active that she keeps everyone on her toes now. During her stay at nana house, she would attack the dressing table and in less than 5 minutes it’s contents would be spread across the room. All one had to do was to leave her on the floor and zap she would crawl to the dressing table which became her favorite play area. In fact the thing most dear to Devaangi kept on the dressing table was the telephone . She would keep lifting and throwing the receiver on the ground and fiddle with it’s keypad to turn on and off the speaker and dial numbers.
Devaangi now also tries to get down the bed. She crawls to the end of the bed and looks down. If she finds a support like me or someone else, she holds on to us and tries to get down. Smart bacha.

Tring Tring
BTW Devaangi has learnt to make calls using dadu’s mobile and the cordless at home J. Yes she fiddles so much with these instruments that twice she has called up people(one of whom was her bua) who kept on wondering why was pappaji calling them up and when they called up we were able to put the pieces of puzzle together to identify the real caller J

Devaangi ko gussa kyoun aata hai
Devaangi has also learnt how to throw tantrums!!!yes you heard me right tantrums. If she is angry, you can see the scowl on her face. Try giving her anything to hold at this point of time and bang, she’ll throw it on the floor. Same goes when you try and feed her. If she is not in a mood to eat, she’ll firmly close her mouth and turn her face away.  Devaangi now also screams when she doesn’t like anything.When she screams and I tell her sternly “Devaangi!! Awaaz nahi nikalni chahiye” she immediately becomes quiet and looks at me with an innocent look that just melts my heart..and in a minutes time her mood changes and she becomes bubbly as usual. Itni choti si naak pe itna saara gussa rehta hai to icecream ki tarah jaldi se melt bhi ho jaata hai!!And last but not the least bacha goes on saying hupp to everyone around with on offended look on her face.

Struck with maa in traffic for more than 3 hours

Devaangi had a real patience test when I was driving back to our house from nana house. It was a day before shivratri. We left nana house at 8 am with bacha strapped in her car seat and maa behind the wheels. The one hour journey took us more than 3 hours thanks to the kaawariyas. The whole NH 24 was jammed. Imagine having struck up in traffic with bacha. During the journey, bacha slept for some time, while driving with one hand I tried to hold her bottle with the other while feeding her, in between bacha had water, banana. Bacha indeed had her patience test. Can’t blame her for that. Imagine us in her position- strapped in the seat for 3+hrs and not able to move around. At times bacha got so cranky and angry that she would cry or scream and even tried to get hold of my arm at tug at it. I’m sure that trip was no less than a nightmare for bacha.

Maa mujhe bhook lagi hai

Bacha has  been having banana and lichi for quite some time now. In past 2 months we introduced her to many more fruits and other eatables. Some she Liked and some- she Disliked. For bacha mango is truly the king of fruits. She really enjoys eating mango. Too much waala scene to tab hota hai jab daadi makes her suck the mango guthli.. With her tiny teeth, bacha  holds on to the guthli and eats mango par siff tab when she feeling like having it else mouth shut and face turned away waala scene hota hai.

Another fruit that Devaangi enjoys is aalu bukhara(plum). She loves having peeled small pieces of plum- who to kabhi bhi chalta hai

Asli maza to tab aata hai when bacha tries to announce that she is hungry. Haanji bacha has grown up enough to tell us that wants food to eat or water to drink. Moments she starts crying(without tears of course) without any rhyme or reason we know it’s time for her to have her food. Her cry pattern when she is hungry is different form her usual cry- so it is easy for us to figure out the reason.

Also if you are drinking water from the glass and bacha is thirsty, she’ll either grab the glass and put her lops over it’s rim or she’ll call out to you to draw your attention towards her so that  you can share the glass of water with her. Mere saath to roz yeah hota hai. When I reach home in the evening and m having a glass of water, bacha is in my arms by then. Bus phir kya hai, like a flash of lightening, she makes a grab at my glass and tries to drink water from it.